Freeland Palooza to feature KISS tribute band

Fred Kelly | fred.kelly@mdn.net

Updated 8:30 am, Thursday, June 25, 2015

With families and regular jobs vying for their time, the members of KISS tribute band War Machine probably can’t rock and roll all night and party every day. But that hasn’t stopped the hard-rocking quartet from Detroit from sharing their love of an American icon with a whole new generation of music fans.

Comprised of Tim Cerda (who plays the role of Gene Simmons), Brian Ford (“Paul Stanley”), Jeff Alex (“Ace Frehley”), and Lou Ryan (“Peter Criss”), War Machine has been bringing the KISS experience — complete with full costumes, blood-spitting, fire-breathing and other vintage stage theatrics — to the masses since 1997. Their latest stop will bring them back to mid-Michigan, where War Machine will headline the second annual Freeland Palooza free music festival for the second consecutive year.

And festival committee member David Klawuhn couldn’t be happier to have them back.

“They did an outstanding job (last year). They enjoy what they’re doing,” Klawuhn said. “That makes a big difference. I don’t care if you’re a weekend band or if you’re (playing music) for a living — if you enjoy what you’re doing, it’s a lot more fun for the crowd.”

This year’s Freeland Palooza will take place from noon to about 10 p.m. Saturday at Tittabawassee Township Park. Admission and parking are free, and all ages are welcome.

Proceeds, generated mostly from the sale of T-shirts and free-will donations, will go to benefit the Johnny Burke Children’s Foundation and the Humane Society of Midland County. Last year’s proceeds benefitted Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement and The ROCK Center for Youth Development.

Klawuhn said that the goal of the Freeland Palooza committee is to continue to benefit a wide variety of charitable organizations in the future.

“We really want to include all types (of charities),” he said. “ ... And it’s all locally-directed funding, so the money that is generated stays in our local communities.”

According to Klawuhn, the day will include several local artists — including Future Hero Self, Dead Man Serenade, Greta Van Fleet, Barbarossa Brothers, and The Goons — who will provide a variety of music all day and into the night. The festival will also include inflatables and other fun activities for children, along with numerous food vendors.

But the highlight of the festival will be War Machine, which specializes in bringing classic KISS tunes — along with the occasional obscure KISS song and even some covers by other bands — to life on stage.

“They do it right. They all have regular jobs, too, but you can tell they’re very passionate about putting on a good show,” Klawuhn said. “They’ve really proven to be an asset (to our festival). They enjoy being up there (on stage), and they really enjoy the people (who come to their shows.).

“ ... Basically, they’ve recreated the 1977 KISS tour,” Klawuhn added. “They have some of the exploding pods and some of the (stage) antics that Gene Simmons did back in the '70s, minus the cursing. They don’t do profanity. But they do like to do a flashy show, and I think that’s why they’re building a following.”

According to Alex, who serves as the band spokesman offstage while playing the part of lead guitarist “Spaceman” Ace Frehley onstage, keeping its shows family-friendly is important to War Machine.

“We like to make it a family event, because we have a lot of third-generation fans,” Alex explained. “We have everybody from grandmas and grandpas all the way down to youngsters (at our shows). ... KISS is a good band. They have a lot of songs with positive messages about believing in yourself. Not a lot of their songs are really rebellious, especially by today’s standards.

“When KISS first came out years ago, some people thought they’d be bad for the youth of America, but if you look at the music industry now, (KISS’s music and stage show are) pretty tame,” he added.

War Machine, which derives its name from the final song on KISS’s 1982 album Creatures of the Night, typically plays a set list chock full of KISS standards such as “Detroit Rock City,” “Deuce,” “Black Diamond,” and “Shout It Out Loud,” and which lasts for anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours.

“(We try to play) the songs that people are most familiar with and want to hear,” Alex said. “ ... And we try to fit in (a lot of songs from) Alive and Alive II. A lot of the material we do is off of those two albums, because those were their most popular albums.”

War Machine also is not averse to playing cover songs from other bands, most notably bands which have toured with KISS in the past.

“We had a good crowd (at Freeland Palooza) last year, and we wanted to close out the show with some songs by bands like Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Alice Cooper — bands that KISS has toured with,” Alex noted. “That really went over well. The people liked it.

“Sometimes, we like to take a little break from KISS, and people seem to like that.”

As for KISS’s legendary stage show, Alex said that Cerda does indeed spit blood and breathe fire a la Gene Simmons, while Ryan will sing the Peter Criss ballad “Beth” and hand out roses to women in the audience, and Alex himself will duplicate Frehley’s showcase guitar solos complete with smoking guitar.

War Machine also incorporates some of KISS’s traditional lighting and dry-ice stage fog but shies away from over-the-top pyrotechnics for practical reasons.

“We try to do as much (of KISS’s stage show) as we can — as much as we can fit into a 10-foot trailer,” he said with a chuckle. “... We try to do a lot of the stuff that they (KISS) did, but we do have very limited pyro. Pyro is dangerous indoors, and anything big would have to be cleared with the fire marshal anyway.”

Last year, Klawuhn said, the band was having so much fun at Freeland Palooza that they played 45 minutes beyond their scheduled time slot.

“And they refused to take extra payment,” Klawuhn said with a laugh. “Afterward, I asked them, ‘How much more do I owe you?’ and they just laughed. They were just up there having a great time, and so was the crowd.”

While War Machine has played in locales stretching from Redondo Beach, Calif. to Montreal, Quebec and at venues as diverse as weddings to courtrooms to corporate parties to private birthday parties, one gig in particular holds a special place in the band members’ hearts.

Last October, the band was invited by Michigan State University basketball coach Tom Izzo to play at the Spartans’ “Midnight Madness” season kickoff at the Breslin Center. During the festivities, Izzo himself took the stage dressed in full Gene Simmons makeup and costume before addressing tens of thousands of Spartan fans.

“He was a KISS fan in college, and he thought it would be kind of cool (to invite us to Midnight Madness),” Alex said of Izzo. “And we had performed at a (Michigan State) football game two years prior to that, so he had gotten a chance to see us live, and so he decided he wanted to do something KISS-related for Midnight Madness.

“ ... That video went viral on the Internet. It just blew up and was all over the place,” Alex added. “And then, of course, Michigan State ended up making it to the (Final Four this past season). ... We were happy to be part of launching that season.”

Unlike War Machine — which has been featured on TV several times, including on A&E, the Travel Channel, the Food Network and FOX Morning News — the other bands playing at Freeland Palooza really don’t have much of a following. And that’s just the way Klawuhn and his fellow committee members like it.

“We try to seek out bands who maybe haven’t performed before, like neighborhood garage bands, (and give them a chance to shine),” he said. “For example, this year we have a band called The Goons, which is a band of kids whose parents are more known for music than (the band members are). These kids are around 14 or 15 years old, they come from a blood line of musicians, and they’re really working hard to take the next step.

“ ... We always want to include kids’ bands (in the Freeland Palooza lineup),” he added. “It’s a way for them to hit the stage without feeling a lot of pressure.”

Klawuhn said that donations are very much welcome but certainly not mandatory.

“We’ll take donations (for charity), but no one is obligated to do that,” he noted. “We recognize that some people in the area just don’t have the luxury of being able to go off on vacation or of getting away. This is a way for those people to drive a couple of miles and escape with their families for the day.”